


We Need to Talk

by Vex_ation



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Children's Day, Gen, found family baby!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23239381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vex_ation/pseuds/Vex_ation
Summary: It's Children's Day and all the Frontier Brains want to do is celebrate with their favorite challenger (who is conveniently nowhere to be found). Tucker tracks him down, only for the two of them to have a little heart to heart about something they thought the other would never understand.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	We Need to Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Children's Day is a Japanese holiday meant to celebrate families! I figured the Battle Frontier would have a celebration for it since they're basically a theme park anyway

The table was set, the mochi were prepared, and a myriad of colorful windsocks were strewn across the room. The Frontier Brains sat around idly, watching out the window and staring at the walls in boredom as trainers and their families milled around outside. 

Scott had insisted on doing something for Children’s Day, and while the spirit of the event was in the air and the planning was, as usual, exquisite, the Frontier Brains just couldn’t get into the spirit of things. Everything was perfect, but in their case there was just one itsy bitsy problem: the only child any of them cared about was mysteriously absent. For whatever reason, Emerald had disappeared early that morning, taking a rental pokemon with him, and had spent half the day in who-knows-where with a constant refusal to pick up his phone or return any attempts to contact him. Considering all the Brains had gotten together specifically to celebrate with him, it wasn’t ideal.

Tucker sighed and leaned back in his chair. He turned to Lucy, who cut him off before he even had the chance to open his mouth. 

“No, I don’t know where he is, and no, I don’t know when he’s coming back,” she snapped. Upon seeing Tucker’s indigent pouting, she let her expression soften. “I’m worried about him too.” As the two stared at the walls and tried to think about someone other than their favorite challenger, Noland walked in with a strange device and a small smile on his face (which for him meant absolute ecstasy). 

“I found him!” he said, showing the screen to all the worried frontier brains in the room. They crowded around his tiny device, which showed a blinking light around Artisan Cave. 

“How’d you track him?” Brandon asked as he rested his head on top of Greta’s. Noland explained it with pride to the curious Brandon, who was pointedly ignoring all of Greta’s attempts to swat him away. 

“I didn’t want another incident like the one with Guile, so I placed trackers in all of the pokeballs for the rental pokemon. I can track Emerald through the pokemon he took this morning. Looks like he was using it for sea-travel; he seems to be in Artisan Cave at the present.”

Tucker hopped out of his seat before anyone else could respond. “I’ll go get him!” he exclaimed. Greta looked about to protest, but Spencer silenced her with a glare and a tap of his staff as Tucker raced out the door. 

“I’ll be back soon!” he cried as he released his Salamence and hopped on his back. The two of them raced towards Artisan Cave, where Tucker hoped he’d be able to knock some sense into Emerald and maybe even chew him out on making them all worry on the way back. Plus, sometimes it was nice to get away from the island and the challengers and all the aires they had to put on. He couldn’t help but appreciate the wind on his face sometimes. 

A short while later, Salamence broke through the cloud cover and Tucker descended on Artisan Cave, which sparkled like diamonds in the wide expanse of sapphire ocean around it. Stirring the air with his wings, Salamence landed softly at the mouth of the cave, welcoming a head pat from Tucker before the Frontier Brain made his way into the cave in search of Emerald. 

Surprisingly, he didn’t find the Calmer collecting samples or battling or training or anything. Instead, he managed to track him down to a small shady alcove, where he found him huddled against the wall in uncharacteristic, vulnerable silence. 

“Hey bud, what’s up?” Tucker asked. Emerald said nothing, remaining huddled on the ground and staring at the cave wall. “We wanted to hang out with you today and want you to come back. Want me to fly you back to the island?” he asked. 

Emerald said nothing, but seeing the way his expression changed made Tucker think he hit a nerve. 

“You know… it’s Children's Day today. A bunch of families came to the frontier, so there’s all kinds of battles and challenges I think you’d like. There’s free food and stuff too, and I know how much you love that.”

At this point, Emerald began to blink more quickly, turning his head so Tucker couldn’t see his face. 

“Emerald, are you ok?” he asked. Emerald sniffled and rubbed at his eyes. 

“I don’t like this holiday. I don’t like seeing all the families,” he said, his voice dark and monotone. 

Remembering what Emerald had told him about his own family, he put a hand on Emerald’s back. When he promptly flinched away, Tucker just let his shoulders droop and let his hand fall back to his side. 

“Listen, I… I know it’s hard, but don’t you think your parents and relatives would have wanted you to have fun? They wanted what’s best for you, so… you can stay if you want, but I want you to know that if your parents were still here I’m sure you’d be right there celebrating with them.”

The silence swelled between them, uncomfortable and tense, before finally it popped like a balloon and Emerald broke down completely. Admittedly rather shocked by his reaction, Tucker could do nothing but stare at him, hesitantly reaching out and asking if Emerald was alright. Emerald just squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed at his face even as sobs racked his body. 

“W- whoa there, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, are you alrig--”

“I… I--” Emerald hiccuped, trying and failing to say something in his distress. Tucker just sat there, extremely uncomfortable and confused, while Emerald very slowly tried to calm himself down. It took him minutes, but soon enough he seemed-- though ready to break down again any second-- ready to speak. 

“I… I lied to you.”

“… Huh?”

“M- my relatives aren’t… I mean… I didn’t run away by choice.”

Tucker waited with baited breath. He had a feeling he knew where this was going, and he didn’t like it. 

“W- when they found out I wasn’t norm… uh, growing normally, they didn’t, t- they…”

Sympathy and righteous anger blossomed within Tucker’s chest, each of Emerald’s words weighing him down like stone. What he said next broke him completely, and Tucker couldn’t help but wince. 

“They decided they didn’t want me anymore.”

Tucker didn’t know what else to say. What  _ could _ you say in a situation like that? 

“I don’t… want to see happy families. I don’t know if I can go back. You can’t, you don’t… you don’t get it.”

Tucker moved closer, just staring at Emerald out of the corner of his eye instead of responding. He had been mulling something over for a while, but wondered if this was any time to unload his own problems onto such a young child. He let the silence hang in the air, testing the words in his brain. Once, twice, three times, he almost said it, then let the silence grow. Finally, a sudden burst of confidence surging within him for the briefest moment, he admitted to Emerald that he could understand. He knew how the boy felt because, in the end,

“Me too.”  
Emerald looked up at him in shock, his wet eyes wide and horrified at Tucker’s admittance. Tucker traced circles in the sand with his finger, staring at his shoes as Emerald turned to finally face him.

“My parents don’t talk to me either. When I… about 10 years ago, I told my parents that I was, um… well it doesn’t matter what it was. Regardless, it was something about me, something that made me different from what they were expecting. And… and they kicked me out. They told me some nasty things, things that… that weren’t nice and I didn’t deserve. I talked to a lot of people about it, I had to go to therapy for it, because… because I know that it hurts.”

He finally looked up at Emerald, reaching out to wipe away the tears still streaming down the boy’s face. 

“But it’s not… it’s not your fault. And I’m sorry that you had to deal with that, because I know that no one should have to. Sometimes… sometimes parents are bad people, and as much as you want them to want you, you can’t force them to be good people.”

Emerald watched him in wide-eyed wonder, and Tucker could only imagine what it must have felt like to carry that kind of burden alone for so long and when he was still so young. Tucker shifted to face Emerald completely and put a hand on his shoulder. 

“It’s not your fault. But, even though it hurts… there are people who love you and care for you, and that’s what matters. Your family is the group of people who will love you no matter who you are and no matter what happens. It doesn’t make a difference if they’re related to you or not. You and me, we don’t always get the love we deserve from our relatives, but it’s ok, because there are people out there who love us unconditionally, and it’s not fair that we should have to change ourselves to get the approval of people who should love us no matter what. If they don’t love you exactly as you are, they’re not your family, and they don’t deserve you.”

Tucker’s words resonated through the cave until it seemed the whole world held its breath in contemplation. Emerald’s expression soon turned back into one of doubt. 

“But I… I don’t have…” he sniffled, trying to compose himself. 

“Emerald, do you want to know why I came here in the first place? All the Frontier Brains were worried about you; we wanted you to come back so we could celebrate with you. Every single one of us wants nothing more than to see you happy, because… because we…”

Tucker didn’t say anything more; he didn’t have to. Those three words hung in the air unspoken, sparking like gemstones and whispering poems of resolute and unconditional affection. 

He soon felt a pressure on his side as Emerald leaned into him, silently staring ahead. Tucker put his arm around him and pulled him close, the two of them taking in the tranquility in their joined solitude. The festivities could wait. 


End file.
